Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. is sponsoring state legislation that would restore the right of local governments on Long Island to establish their own public utilities.

    State law allows municipalities to “construct, lease, purchase, own, acquire . . . or operate” their own utilities to service their residents, and more than 40 municipalities across the state have established municipal power companies, including several on Long Island, such as Greenport, Freeport, and Rockville Centre. However, under a 1985 law that established the Long Island Power Authority, a state agency, municipal power companies may not be set up within LIPA’s service area.

    One reason for the creation of LIPA, Mr. Thiele wrote in a press release — aside from keeping the Shoreham nuclear power plant, which was considered unsafe, from opening — was to eliminate the Long Island Lighting Company, a private utility, and replace it with a “true public utility governed by Long Islanders,” including a board elected by Long Island residents.

    That goal, Mr. Thiele asserted, has never been, and never will be, fulfilled. LIPA “has never been governed by Long Islanders, and it has never been a ‘real’ public utility. It has never been more than a ‘shell’ corporation operated by political appointees who then contracted out operations to another private company. The perversion of this intent has meant disaster for Long Island, most recently manifested by the LIPA response to Superstorm Sandy,” he wrote in the release.

    If approved, Mr. Thiele said, his bill would give Long Island residents the “ability to choose municipal power, if they believe it would be superior to the proposed near-privatization model. 

    A plan to limit access to the parking lot at Indian Wells Beach in Amagansett on busy days during the season, by staffing a checkpoint at the entrance where large vehicles and nonresidents would be stopped and asked to turn around, will be the subject of a hearing before the East Hampton Town Board next Thursday. The checkpoint booth has already been installed.

    The proposal is the work of a committee formed after use of the beach as well as reports of drunken and rowdy behavior increased sharply last year. It is made up of members of the town board, including Councilwoman Sylvia Overby, and staff from the planning department, highway, engineering, and parks departments, as well as police and East Hampton Town trustees.

    Parking at Indian Wells is already limited to town residents only, though numerous nonresidents appear to have made the spot their beach of choice. Large groups often arrive by taxi, van, or “party bus” to spend the day.

    Blogs and other Hamptons-centric media reporting on summer trends last year touted the party scene at Indian Wells, encouraging carousers to head there with beer or other drinks. Residents who view it as a family-oriented beach complained to the town board.

    “What we had is a clash of cultures, a little bit,” said Councilman Dominick Stanzione at a May 14 meeting of the board. The trendiness of the spot may be short-term, he said, while installing a checkpoint would be changing “the experience of accessing Indian Wells beach to something else. Now it’s going to be under police guidance.”

    The changes are being considered a “pilot safety plan” for this summer, East Hampton Town Police Capt. Mike Sarlo said, and their efficacy will be evaluated.

    While various proposals, such as banning drinking on the beach or limiting it to the hours after lifeguards have gone off duty, had been floated by residents, the committee focused on solving the tightly crowded and potentially dangerous situation in the parking lot.

    “It was becoming a taxi stand,” Ms. Overby said at the board meeting. “Safety issues” drove the committee’s proposal, she said, rather than behavior issues. But, she said, “I think [the new restrictions] might change the attitudes of the people who are there.”

    Despite having several traffic control officers and a Marine Patrol officer posted at Indian Wells during peak times, the parking lot, Captain Sarlo said at the May 14 meeting, “had reached a volume point on weekends in the summer when it was an unsafe condition.”

    Several food truck vendors park in the lot, which beachgoers must walk through to reach public bathrooms, and with the addition of taxicabs, vans, and buses passing through, it was viewed as a chaotic scene.

The nomination of Zachary Cohen for East Hampton Town councilman from the floor at the Democrats’ nominating convention on May 15 made for some tense moments for Job Potter and Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, the candidates favored by the party’s screening committee. In the end, Mr. Potter and Ms. Burke-Gonzalez prevailed.

    They will share the top of the ticket with Larry Cantwell, the outgoing East Hampton Village administrator, who is also running on the Independence Party line.

    Until earlier this month, Mr. Cohen, who lost his 2011 bid for town supervisor by just 15 votes, was hotly pursing the Democrats’ nomination for supervisor again, but in the wake of the screening committee’s announcement earlier this month that it would back Mr. Cantwell, he withdrew his name from consideration. On the morning of May 15, he said he had “urged everyone to support Larry.”

    At the convention, held this year at St. Michael’s Lutheran Church in Amagansett, members of the Democratic Committee who disagreed with the screening committee’s recommendations could offer alternate nominations. Chuck Hitchcock of Springs nominated Mr. Cohen for councilman and Mary Miller of Montauk seconded.

    “The past two years have been very painful for all of us in East Hampton,” Mr. Hitchcock said, reflecting on Mr. Cohen’s narrow loss in 2011. He said Mr. Cohen “has done his homework and is ready to begin work on Jan. 1” and called him “an electable, intelligent, and caring individual who will make an excellent town board member.”

    When the votes were cast, it was clear many agreed. Mr. Cohen received support from committee members representing 10 of the town’s 19 election districts.

    Two committee people represent each district, with their votes weighted according to the number of Democrats who voted in the last gubernatorial election in the district. Some seats are vacant. If one of the two was absent at the convention on May 15, the remaining committee person held all the votes for the district and could not split them between more than two town board candidates. Michael O’Neill, for example, was the only one representing Election District 11 in East Hampton, the third largest in town, giving him 368 votes to bestow on each of his choices. With the other largest districts each represented by two committee people, that made Mr. O’Neill the most powerful man in the room.

    He at first said he wanted to split his votes between Mr. Potter, Mr. Cohen, and Ms. Burke-Gonzalez, but when he was reminded of the rules, he asked for more time to consider his choice. When the vote came back around to him, he named Mr. Cohen and Ms. Burke-Gonzalez, saying it was clear that Mr. Potter already had the votes to win nomination.

    Kathy Cunningham, president of the Quiet Skies Coalition and executive director of the Village Preservation Society of East Hampton, was also nominated from the floor for town board. “She is a leader” who “strongly supports the same Democratic ideals that we do,” said Naomi Salz, who nominated her.

    Jim McMillan, who seconded the nomination, called Ms. Cunningham’s accomplishments “vast and impressive” and praised her tenacity in fighting for what she believes in. “She won’t stop, which is great. That is exactly what we need.”

    Despite support for both floor nominations, Mr. Potter and Ms. Burke-Gonzalez won fairly decisively. Mr. Potter was a town councilman for eight years and served on the town planning board before that. Ms. Burke-Gonzalez, the outgoing president of the Springs School Board, has served on that board for nine years and is a former member of the Democratic Committee.

    In nominating Mr. Potter, Rameshwar Das described him as “a communicator who brings people together” and said he will bring “competence, stability, and calm” to the town board.

    “He’s the only candidate who has won a seat on the town board before,” said Kammy Wolf, who seconded the nomination. “We know we are getting a record of success.”

    In his acceptance speech later, Mr. Potter thanked the committee for supporting him and said he was “humbled and grateful because you know me, and you have an idea of what I’m going to do in office.” It is time, he said, for the town board to again work cooperatively and to build public support for its initiatives. “The good things that are done are done with public support,” he said.

    Arlene Coulter said she had been asking Ms. Burke-Gonzalez to run for seven or eight years and was thrilled she had finally decided it was time. “She is so good, so effective, so hard-working,” she said in nominating her.

    “For years and years I have wanted her to run for town board,” said Phyllis Mallah, who seconded the nomination. “I wanted her to run for anything in the town.”

    “We have what it takes to lead,” Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said in accepting the nomination. East Hampton is “a special place for special people, but there’s no place for special interests.” She promised to “work hard and always take the high ground.”

    The committee unanimously supported Mr. Cantwell’s nomination. “You have brought to this convention a sense that we have not had in the 30 years I’ve been on the Democratic Committee,” said Larry Smith, who nominated him, calling him “one of the most well-qualified . . . candidates in East Hampton Town’s history.” Mr. Cantwell has been the East Hampton Village administrator for 31 years and served on the town board and as an elected bay constable before that.

    For town justice, the screening committee supported Steven Tekulsky, an East Hampton attorney who ran in the past for justice, but Joe Giannini, an attorney from Springs and a committee member, was nominated from the floor. Committee people from five election districts, including some with the most votes, supported him, but it was not enough for a win over Mr. Tekulsky, whom Bill Taylor called “not only the most qualified candidate, but the most electable candidate.”

    Speaking to the crowd at the end of the convention, Mr. Cantwell congratulated “every person who wanted to be a candidate but was not nominated,” and praised Mr. Cohen, Ms. Cunningham, and Mr. Giannini, as well as his running mates, for their dedication to the town. “Zach, I respect your work for the community, for the Democratic Party, and your efforts running for supervisor,” he said to loud applause. “I invite you to become part of our team to help us lead East Hampton into the future.” He issued the same invitation to Ms. Cunningham and Mr. Giannini.

    “I do hope that will happen and I think I have a lot to offer,” Mr. Cohen said yesterday. “I took Larry at his word. I’ve already lent my support as needed to the campaign committee and some of them have graciously accepted.”

    The committee nominated Eugene DePasquale to run again for town assessor and it cross-endorsed Carole Brennan for town clerk and Steve Lynch for highway superintendent. Both are also running on the Independence and Republican tickets. For town trustee, the committee nominated two incumbents, Deborah Klughers and Stephen Lester, as well as Cate Rogers, Bill Taylor, Edwin Geus, Afton DiSunno, Ira Barocas, and Brian Byrnes.

    With summer approaching, the Division of Vector Control in Suffolk County’s Department of Public Works will soon resume its battle against mosquitoes.

    “We’ll basically be conducting surveillance for mosquitoes and primarily treating breeding sites,” said Dominick Ninivaggi, superintendent of the county’s Division of Vector Control. It’s an approach similar to previous years and conforms to a long-term plan passed by the County Legislature in 2007, over objections of environmentalists and the county’s Council on Environmental Quality.

    In 2007, the East Hampton Town Board adopted a resolution asking the county to discontinue use of methoprene, but state law prohibits local municipalities from enacting their own laws with respect to pesticide use, Mr. Ninivaggi told the board last year.

    The county rarely uses adulticides in East Hampton, Mr. Ninivaggi said. “The only community where we’ve had to use them is Beach Hampton, where we’ve had severe problems in the last couple years. We try to control in the larval stage.”

    Last year, despite several cases of West Nile virus in humans in the county and positive tests of mosquitoes in East Hampton, some residents and officials on the South Fork objected to the spraying of methoprene, a larvicide, and resmethrin, an adulticide, citing potential health hazards to humans and non-target species including lobsters and crabs. A 2012 study by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection also reported the existence of residues of both pesticides in lobsters harvested from Long Island Sound, though Mr. Ninivaggi stated that that could not have resulted from Suffolk County’s application, citing its minimal use and the distance between application sites and the Sound.

    Deborah Klughers, an East Hampton Town Trustee, has had discussions with Mr. Ninivaggi about vector control that she said included concerns about the pesticides’ potential health effects on humans and nontarget species. But a lack of information dispensed to the public, she said, is another serious concern. “Not only are people misunderstanding what the program is, they’re not being given an opportunity to take any precaution,” she said. “They just get sprayed. If the public knew what was going on, maybe they’d be more outraged. Notify the public, and seek alternatives,” she said.

    She wants the town to adopt a more aggressive and preventive approach to vector control. “This town can do a lot of things on the municipal level. I’ll try my best as a trustee, but there’s not enough time in the day for me,” she said. The Highway Department, she suggested, should examine catch basins, and the Sanitation Department should eliminate any standing water from its property.

    Public service announcements in the media advising residents as to steps they can take would help, she said. “Birdbaths, dog bowls — they need to be empty. No standing water, in tires, buckets. They should drill holes an inch off the bottom of garbage pails so the water can drain out. They shouldn’t be out at dawn or dusk, or [should] put on long sleeves. If people have ponds, they can use killifish or eastern mosquitofish,” she said.

    Locally, there is a large population of killifish, which feed on insect larvae, said Mark Abramson, a senior environmental analyst in the town’s Natural Resources Department. “We have closed off some vector ditches in Accabonac [Harbor] and Northwest Creek, which would keep vectors from stormwater input into the bays,” he said. “We’re also trying to keep the killifish that will eat the larvae in those areas.”

    But, Mr. Abramson added, “The complaints on mosquitoes outweigh the complaints from people who want to protect anything besides mosquitoes. If they don’t spray, they’re going to get a lot more complaints than from people who are concerned about wildlife or health. But they use the least amount of invasive chemicals to try and specifically target the larval mosquitoes.”

    Above all, Ms. Klughers said, “The public has a right to know what the government is doing to them and their environment. Whether it’s good or bad is another discussion, but if the public can know they can take precautions.” Fishermen, she said, have complained about aerial spraying directly above them, as have people kayaking in local waters. “People don’t know what to do. I get people constantly telling me this. They’re just not informed,” she said.

    Informing the public is challenging, Mr. Ninivaggi said, because it is difficult to predict precisely when a helicopter will reach a particular area. Wind conditions are also a factor in when and whether aerial spraying will be conducted at a given time. When an adulticide is to be applied, he said, “We use the county’s code red system to phone telephones in the area. For the aerial treatment of salt marshes, we have an e-mail list. We’re always looking for ways to improve public notice.”

    Residents can join a “no-spray” registry by downloading a form from the county’s Division of Vector Control Web site and submitting it by fax. The county will “make a good faith effort,” according to the site, to exclude registrants’ property by stopping adulticide spraying from trucks within 150 feet of either side of their property. The registry does not apply to larvicide, nor will it be in effect in the event that the Commissioner of Health declares a public health emergency.

    Southampton Councilman Chris Nuzzi was nominated by the Suffolk County Republican Committee last week to challenge the five-term incumbent Jay Schneiderman for Suffolk County legislator. Mr. Schneiderman, a member of the Independence Party, is seeking his sixth and final two-year term.

    Mr. Nuzzi is serving his second and final term as a member of the Southampton Town Board.

    Mr. Nuzzi cited the county’s budget, the environment, and state and federal mandates that he said handcuff the county as top issues in this race. Southampton, he said, “is fiscally stable at a time when many other municipalities are in distress, Suffolk County being one.”

    Conservative budgeting and practices, and the ability to reinvent government, are important, he said, “especially throughout these difficult times. We’ve been able to do that without increasing the tax levy three years straight while reducing staff through attrition — not layoffs — so services weren’t impacted. I certainly believe that some of the commonsense practical solutions we’ve brought to Southampton can be brought to Suffolk County as well,” he said.

    A continued commitment, on the county level, to the environment is also crucial, Mr. Nuzzi said Monday, calling for further county cooperation with towns on land preservation efforts. “As a town board member, it’s been vitally important to have that partnership with the county on certain acquisitions — in particular, some of the very expensive acquisitions on the eastern end of the town. The county’s presence and participation has helped us to make a lot of those acquisitions a reality. We need to continue the county’s commitment on environmental preservation, and that means funding programs as well.”

    Hurricane Sandy, he said, highlights the importance of the Army Corps of Engineers’ Fire Island to Montauk Reformulation Study. “All of us should be coming together to make sure that plan is not just completed, but funding associated with beach renourishment for areas most at risk [is appropriated]. We tend to look at this somewhat territorially, [but] there has to be a comprehensive plan for all areas. Through our own policies we have initiated what I believe are good programs focused on restoration of areas of beach that have been damaged or are at risk. We’ve implemented those districts without burdening the taxpayer — those are privately funded by individuals who are going to most directly benefit.” But, he added, “there is a tangible benefit to the rest of the community.”

    In an interview on Tuesday, Mr. Schneiderman referred to many of the same issues, including “the thousands of acres of land I’ve been involved in preserving.” He also cited his attention to “critical issues like [county] buses running on Sundays, and adding an extra lane to the main road coming out to our area, County Road 39.”

    “I have had 10 consecutive years without any increases in the county property tax in my district, East Hampton and Southampton Town, which is a significant accomplishment, particularly in light of the county’s fiscal challenges during the recession,” Mr. Schneiderman said.

    On Hurricane Sandy and the prospect of future extreme weather events, Mr. Schneiderman said that the planet is clearly warming, weather patterns are changing, and sea level is rising. “We do need to rethink our coastal policies because of it,” he said, “but the most immediate urgency is getting sand put back in place, particularly in downtown Montauk, where you have hotels in jeopardy of being washed away. We need a major beach nourishment project there, and Congressman Bishop has been working on it. I’ve been in close communication with his office.”

    Of his opponent, Mr. Nuzzi said, “I have differing viewpoints on many things as it relates to Jay’s presence in the legislature. First and foremost, you have to want to be there, and I do. I’ve gotten an opportunity I’m very thankful to the people of Southampton for. I want to continue in public service and saw this as a position where I could contribute. I don’t know exactly what he wants to do, but I can tell you this is a position I’m excited about seeking.” Mr. Nuzzi works for Skyline TRG Title Agency, a New York City title insurance company, and earned a master’s degree in public policy from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He lives in Westhampton Beach.

    Mr. Schneiderman served two terms as East Hampton Town supervisor, elected on the Republican ticket. He was elected to the Suffolk County Legislature in 2003 and ran unopposed on the Republican, Democratic, Independence, Conservative, and Working Families Party lines in 2009. He switched party affiliation to become a member of the Independence Party before the 2011 election, then ran on the Democratic, Working Families, and Independence lines, winning by a wide margin.

    Mr. Schneiderman considered a 2013 run for East Hampton Town supervisor on the Republican ticket, and was named by the Republicans as their top choice, but opted to seek a final term in the Legislature. He lives in Montauk.

    “I’ll continue to work hard for my constituents,” Mr. Schneiderman said. “I believe this region needs full-time representation. Otherwise, we’ll be taken advantage of, as we have in the past.”

    A plan devised by a task force to “spread the pain” of helicopter noise over three routes into and out of East Hampton Airport was supported by a majority of the East Hampton Town Board on Tuesday, although officials acknowledged it would make no one happy.

    A switch last year in the predominant helicopter route, sending most of the craft over Jessup’s Neck in Noyac as well as over hundreds of Noyac and Sag Harbor houses, caused residents there, and their elected officials — Southampton Town Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst, Representative Tim Bishop, and New York State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. — to descend on the East Hampton Town Board asking for a change before this year’s busy season.

    The task force was made up of representatives of several civic groups, regional airports, and the Towns of Southampton, Shelter Island, and Southold. The plan it came up with was outlined for the town board at a work session on Tuesday by Jim Brundige, the East Hampton Airport manager. Though the town has no authority to require aircraft to use particular routes, protocols are usually discussed and agreed upon with industry representatives, and, said Mr. Brundige, compliance with suggested routing is good. He is now expected to work with a helicopter pilots’ association to put the new guidelines in place.

    The new protocol limits the flights over the Jessup’s Neck area, which intersects with a “waypoint” where helicopters turn off an F.A.A.-mandated east-west route along the north shore of Long Island. That route is now to be used only by incoming aircraft.

    Half the departing helicopters will be sent on a new route over Barcelona Neck in East Hampton, “with the intention” that helicopters be at least 3,000 feet above ground by that point, Mr. Brundige said, though conditions and individual helicopter performance may vary. Other outgoing helicopters, as well as a percentage of incoming craft, will be asked to use a route along the south shore, accessing the airport over Georgica.

    “The issue over the last few years was the inequity that we threw this over a neighboring town,” Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson said at the meeting.

    Southampton Supervisor Throne-Holst attended the session, representing, she said, not only her constituents but Southampton Councilwoman Christine Scalera, Mr. Thiele, and Mr. Bishop. She expressed concern that East Hampton might not implement the routes proposed by the task force, but she called the effort by East Hampton to distribute aircraft noise more widely “the right and courageous thing to do.”

    “We had a very clear understanding that what we worked on there, we were committed to,” Ms. Throne-Holst said, “. . . that what we came up with there was the protocol for the 2013 season.”

    “Perfect — no. Better? Most certainly,” she said. “So here we are, the Tuesday before Memorial Day weekend, and I have to say that I bring collective concern from Congressman Bishop, Assemblyman Thiele, and my constituents that that is not what is going to happen.”

    The majority East Hampton Town Board consensus served to alleviate that concern. But even with the new routes, Ms. Throne-Holst said, “No one will be completely happy. It’s a problem that essentially doesn’t have a solution, as long as there’s an airport. I understand the conundrum; most citizens will understand the conundrum — some won’t, many will.”

    “The board has an obligation to ensure that we’re not unfairly burdening one group,” East Hampton Councilwoman Theresa Quigley said.

    However, Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc said that given his primary responsibility to represent East Hampton constituents, “I cannot recommend additional routes.” In addition, he said, “I am extremely disappointed that we are establishing what amounts to a helicopter superhighway over our most protected and pristine parts of town. We are going to greatly diminish the experience of visitors there,” he said.

    “If we’re going to share the pain, let’s spread it even more widely,” he said, suggesting a 360-degree spectrum of routes. That, Mr. Brundige said, would be impractical to implement, though not impossible.

    “Route changes do not address the problem,” Mr. Van Scoyoc continued. “I think that the whole discussion of routes really takes the focus off dealing with the real problem. Rerouting traffic doesn’t alleviate the problem; it only displaces the burden. Unless you pursue restrictions that you limit the number of impacts, or reduce the number of impacts. . . . We have no legal control unless we have control over our airport,” he said. 

    The acceptance of F.A.A. grants leaves the town tied to the agency’s operational guidelines for the airport. Whether the town could, or should, eschew further grants, and how the town might position itself to gain greater autonomy over airport operating decisions, such as potentially limiting its use or the hours of operation, has been a subject of contentious debate. Existing “assurances,” or agreements, with the F.A.A., will expire after 2014, and the town has begun to gather aircraft noise data that could be used to make a case for local control.

    The key focus, Councilwoman Sylvia Overby agreed, should be “on the end of 2014, and getting rid of the F.A.A. assurances. . . . “I’m very conflicted,” she said, as far as interim decisions about what to do for this summer season and next, noting that the board will inevitably hear from East Hampton residents under the proposed new helicopter routes. But, she said, “I believe in being a good neighbor, and would expect the same from Southampton.”

    She endorsed the suggested new routes reluctantly, as did Councilman Dominick Stanzione. “I’m very reluctantly going to not oppose what Jim’s proposing,” Mr. Stanzione said.

    “Let everyone get disturbed, and let everyone come to this town board and say, ‘this is not the quality of life’ ,” Ms. Overby said.

    “How many lines do you have for noise complaints?” she asked Mr. Brundige rhetorically. “Just one? Tongue-in-cheek, I’m suggesting you increase it.”

    In a split vote on Tuesday, the East Hampton Town Board decided not to grant a zone change request by the owners of the Napeague property that houses Cyril’s bar and restaurant.

    Bonnie and Michael Dioguardi, who own the site as well as an adjacent parcel, had asked that the properties, now zoned for residential use, be placed instead in a neighborhood business zone.

The change, they argued, would allow Cyril’s, which was the site of a bar and restaurant before the zoning code was established, and is allowed to continue but not to expand, to resolve a number of zoning code violations and create several off-road parking spaces.

    The board held a public hearing on the idea, and had the Planning Department prepare an initial assessment of the potential environmental impacts of the change before voting on the proposal. Supervisor Bill Wilkinson and Councilwoman Theresa Quigley cast yes votes on the zone change. The other three board members, Dominick Stanzione, Peter Van Scoyoc, and Sylvia Overby, voted no.

East Hampton Town

Seek Food Truck and Pool Bids

    East Hampton Town is soliciting bids from food truck vendors interested in leasing the exclusive right to sell at Gin Beach in Montauk. Bids must be received by 3 p.m. on Wednesday by the town’s Purchasing Department, which can provide specifications.

    Bids are also being sought for a rehabilitation — by marble dusting — of the pools at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter. They are due by next Thursday.

    Stephen Lynch, the East Hampton Town highway superintendent, will take on the additional responsibilities of supervising the Sanitation Department, according to a recent vote of the town board. The former Sanitation Department head, Patrick Keller, retired as of March 27. Mr. Lynch will be paid an annual stipend of $15,000 for the additional duties.

Overton’s Campaign Kick-Off

    Fred Overton will kick off his campaign for East Hampton Town councilman with a fund-raiser on Sunday at the Harbor Bistro on Three Mile Harbor Road in East Hampton. Mr. Overton, who is running on the Republican and Independence tickets, is the current town clerk.

    The party on Sunday will run from 3 to 5 p.m. Tickets cost $50 in advance and $75 at the door. Advance tickets are available through Mr. Overton or Tina Piette in Amagansett.

    Suffolk County’s public health clinic on Accabonac Road in East Hampton is slated for consolidation with a Southampton clinic, with both to be housed near Southampton Hospital, according to a plan being promoted by Suffolk County Executive Steven Bellone.

    County legislators voted yesterday to hold two hearings on the proposal, at 10 a.m. on May 21 at the county legislative auditorium in Riverhead and on May 23 at the county center in Hauppauge, and to shift a $2.2 million portion of a federal grant toward renovations of the building where the new clinic would be set up, a former nursing home owned by Southampton Hospital, close to the hospital site. The hospital will reportedly add $700,000 from its own federal grant toward the cost of the renovations.

    The two clinics would become one “federally qualified health center,” eligible for federal funding and created through a partnership among the county, Southampton Hospital, Stony Brook University, and Hudson River Health Care, a private not-for-profit that will run the clinic.

    This initiative will save the county $3.8 million over the next five years, according to a release from Mr. Bellone.

    The East Hampton clinic location was hard-fought, with health advocates here working diligently over the years to have the county offer health care within the town in order to serve residents for whom transportation to the Southampton clinic could pose a problem.

    As an enticement, the town spent $600,000 to renovate the Fishelson building at the Accabonac Apartments, a housing complex owned by the East Hampton Housing Authority, for use by the clinic, and provided the space to the county at no fee for 10 years.

    County officials threatened to close the clinic when that period expired several years ago, and the county was asked to enter into a lease with the housing authority for the space. The current lease expires in June, but county officials have inquired about renewing it month to month, Catherine Casey, the East Hampton Housing Authority’s executive director, said at an East Hampton Town Board meeting on Tuesday.

    Ms. Casey asked board members to “communicate with the county” regarding concerns over providing health services in the East Hampton community and keeping the clinic here, noting that the “previous administration fought hard to get it here.”

    County Legislator Jay Schneiderman, a former East Hampton Town supervisor and the East End’s representative, said yesterday that he supports the consolidation plan.

    Though the demand for services for lower-income residents has not decreased, Mr. Schneiderman said, the number of clients at the East Hampton clinic has “declined rapidly,” by about half over just the last few years. That is due in part, he said, to the establishment by the county of an H.M.O. in which clinic users and Medicaid recipients can enroll. The H.M.O. is now operated by a private company that has agreements with local practitioners, allowing patients to go to private doctors’ offices at a minimum cost.

    Many former clinic patients now see doctors such as Gail Schonfeld in East Hampton or Harriet Hellman in Water Mill, Mr. Schneiderman said, “providing a better level of care for the same cost — lower in some cases.” Whereas appointments at the clinic had to be made, perhaps up to three weeks in advance, the doctors’ offices offer same-day appointments, extended hours, and “excellent bilingual services,” said Mr. Schneiderman.

    Another plus, the county legislator said, is that at the new clinic, visits will cost $15 for uninsured patients, versus a minimum payment for a clinic visit that was increased to $75 under former County Executive Steve Levy’s administration.

    Under federal guidelines, in addition to medical services, the clinic will be required to provide mental health and dental services. The county clinic, Mr. Schneiderman said, “often didn’t even have a doctor,” while the new Southampton site, with its affiliation with both Southampton Hospital and Stony Brook University Medical Center, will be served by their staffs.

    “The level of health care is going to go through the roof,” Mr. Schneiderman said. He said he had pressed for the consolidated clinic to be located in Bridgehampton, easier to reach for patients from Montauk and other places in East Hampton Town. However, he said, the transportation issue is being addressed by Hudson River, which is working on a plan to provide rides, perhaps on a shuttle, to the clinic.

    In addition, he said, under an arrangement between the health care provider and doctors, clinic patients will be able to see Dr. George Dempsey at his East Hampton office, and Dr. Anthony Knott at the Montauk Medical Center.

    The county clinic will remain open in East Hampton until the end of the year, Mr. Schneiderman said. The new arrangement, he said, will be “a public-private partnership with multiple entities all working together to greatly improve health care on the East End.”

    “The county lacks the financial resources, I think, to run the clinic at the level it needs to be run,” he said.

    Dick Cavett’s Tick Hall, one of seven McKim, Mead, and White houses on the Montauk ocean bluffs, and two houses on the waterfront on the other side of the Montauk peninsula, have made for interesting agendas at recent East Hampton Town Zoning Board meetings. The latter, an  application for erosion-control work on Soundview Drive, was approved on Tuesday. A hearing on Mr. Cavett’s application met with favorable response on April 23, although a decision is pending.

    The owners of adjoining properties along Soundview Drive sought to amend variances approved by the board in 2011 that allowed construction of stone revetments backed by a steel bulkhead to protect their houses from the encroaching Long Island Sound. At the hearing, they asked for permission to expand the revetments and their returns, essentially linking the two. Richard Hammer of the Montauk firm Biondo and Hammer told the board the expansion was needed because of damage from Superstorm Sandy. He said the houses were almost dangling over the Sound as a result.

    Brian Frank, the chief environmentalist of the Planning Department, said it did not oppose the work. However, he warned that storms that batter and shrink the coastline seem to be outstripping the technological advances being made to protect the coast. In the past, he said, protective structures were thought effective for 30 years. Now, he said, 10 years seems to have become the standard. The vote approving the work on the structures was approved 5-0.

     Tick Hall had been built in 1884 for Alexander E. Orr and is in a historic district. Mr. Cavett acquired it in the early 1960s. At the time, he was a writer for the Johnny Carson Show before going on to become a popular TV talk-show host in his own right. Disaster struck in 1997, however, when the house burned to the ground, leaving only a chimney visible from miles away. Mr. Cavett and his wife, the late Carrie Nye, saw to the house’s painstaking reconstruction, although it took until 2000 before a new certificate of occupancy was obtained.

    Mr. Cavett has a proven interest in the protection of ocean bluff environment, having purchased and sold a large parcel surrounding his house to the Town of East Hampton for preservation. The house now sits on 20 acres.

    His Z.B.A. application is for a 250-square-foot kitchen and bath addition, a 161-square-foot second-story porch, and a 92-square-foot ground-floor porch. Designed by Nicholas Botta, an East Hampton architect, the additions are modest in comparison to those the board normally sees. They require Z.B.A. variances, however, because of the proximity to freshwater wetlands. The town requires structures to be at least 100 feet from wetlands, and the additions would be about 32 feet and 98 feet from them. Mr. Cavett has already obtained approval from the Architectural Review Board. 

    In a memo to the board, Lisa D’Andrea, a town planner, noted that there are wetlands and wildlife natural habitats near the house. Indeed, Mr. Cavett’s application was presented to the board by Charles Bowman of a firm called Land Use Ecological Services. He told the board that the proposed additions would have no effect on the wetlands. “That area up there is heaven, to me,” he said. Ms. D’Andrea said the Planning Department did not have any problem with the proposed variances, and the board is expected to vote on the application at its next work session, on Tuesday.

    This week’s meeting was an introductory one for the board’s new attorney, Susanna M. Roxbury, who was hired by the town as an assistant attorney last week. She is being assisted, for the time being, by John Jilniki, the town’s head attorney.

    The former Z.B.A. attorney, Rob Connelly, left town service to go into private practice recently. He had been instrumental in introducing several changes in the procedure followed by the board, including a checklist before a vote is rendered, in which the pluses and minuses of an application, for both the town and the applicant, are compared.